Cipher 17: Farana
by Banaki
Summary: When the Sith Empire's best unappreciated agent gets sent to investigate a colony gone radio silent, he finds himself over his head for the first time. Based just before events of SW:TOR


Cipher-17 is a Imperial Agent of the Sith Empire. Fed up of being served mundane missions below his skill set, he finds himself in too deep after being dispatched to a colony gone radio silent.

Chapter 1 - Arrival

Jacen sighed at the planet below him. When his minder had informed him that he was finally going to get a chance off-world he had imagined something a little different than this, and even from orbit, Jacen could tell that Farana was going to be a dump.

Ninety percent of the planet's surface was coated in a dark green that cried out swamp, broken only by the occasional lighter patch of ocean. To the north, thin wisps of cloud stuck in spirals around the pole, promising a chilly humidity while the south presented only more tar-like bog. - this was going to be Dagobah all over again. And to think he was only just getting the smell of Gnarltrees and swamp slugs out of his armour.

Imperial Intelligence asked too much of him. Somehow, even though he had performed top of the class, they still insisted he carry out the most routine and dull operations.

They had erased his past and name, made him a phantom on all records, yet the best use they could think of for him was carrying out research and follow-ups in the far corners of the galaxy.

Jacen slowly leaned forward, bringing the shuttle closer to the surface and began to scan for life-forms.

The monitor began to graph the results as he flew past. It was designed to pick up anything with a heat signature and a mass over that of an ugnaught. Glancing over, he found it surprisingly blank however. He gave it a tap, but the results didn't change: according to the data there was no life-forms on the planet.

Weird, from the few reports he had encountered on the planet, there was meant to be a native population of possibly millions. The scanner must be broken, he thought, or perhaps the natives lived in a different sector of the planet, out of scanning range, he hadn't seen any signs of civilisation from orbit. That was most likely. Yet Jacen couldn't banish the dread in the back of his throat, t _hey could all be dead. Killed, and you're going to meet whatever did it. It will kill you too, turn back. There is a reason this region is called Wild Space._

Steadying himself, he began to type in the co-ordinates his Minder had sent him. They were for a colony the empire had set up here several years ago and where the reason he had been dispatched in the first place:

500 men, vetted and hand selected by the empire, brave pioneers facing the unknown, had come and settled on the swamp planet, extending the emperor's hand just one planet further. The irony was, they couldn't be more cut off from the rest of the empire if they had left the galaxy entirely, and if it wasn't for the bi-annual planetary reports, no one would realise they existed. In fact, they didnt, for the most part. So it was a big surprise when a low paid intern browsing through Imperial records realised the colony had missed their last 3 reports.

This in turn was passed onto his superiors and found its way to the bottom of Imperial Intelligence's mission list, lost in a backlog of at least another 5 years worth of higher priority escapades; infiltrating the Cartel, destroying the Republic, etc. It wasn't until words got whispered in the wrong ears and six months ago, a rather pissed off Sith named Darth Hadra came screaming at Keeper, demanding that we follow up, that anyone dared look into it. Apparently, one of this Sith's apprentices had left several months ago to visit the colony and failed to return.

As much as Jacen hated the Sith, he could sympathise - if you thought your pupil was stranded in a place like this, you'd be angry too.

With a few beeps and flashes,the computer locked on to the co-ordinates. It said the colony site was a 10-minute flight away on the far side of the planet. Setting the ship on auto-pilot, Jacen stood up and made his way into the back of the vessel.

His standard issue X-70B Phantom was the one perk of being an agent. The ship's design made it a home away from home with sleek interiors and state-of-the-art technology. Perhaps that was why he had stuck in the service so long.

In the hangar, he grabbed his TD-05A Panther armour, riddled with dents and memories, and slid it on over his shoulders. Along with it, he placed four vibro-blades in his belt and handled his blaster. For all he knew, the swamps hid creatures that could swallow him whole, and he was not prepared to take any chances.

Re-entering the front deck, he glanced at the monitor again. Still no life-forms. This was bad.

500 men had been on this planet, and he was here to find them. He had hoped that perhaps they had simply had a transmitter malfunction, but that was becoming less and less likely with each second that the monitor remained flat-lined.

A light clunk informed Jacen that the ship had touched down.

With a deep breath, he went to the ramp and, with gun in hand, descended into the swamp planet of Farana.

The first thing to hit him was the smell, its putrid stench causing him to shield his nose and gag. Damn swamp worlds, he thought. As soon as he returned to Dromund Kaas, he was going to have a very stern conversation with his Minder about his mission allocations.

The Phantom had landed roughly a hundred metres away from the outside of the colony, in a small clearing of earth that promised not to let the swamps swallow it. That was not to say the ground was dry either, his boots had sunk a few inches into the mud, but at least he had a footing. On his last mission, Dagobah, he had found himself slipping and disappearing beneath the surface more times than not.

The dull metallic walls of the colony rested ahead of him, emblazoned with the faded red emblem of the empire. Vines had scaled much of the surface and a permanent layer of scum had taken root also.

Cautiously and with blaster drawn, he stepped forward and entered the colony.

Inside was a wreck.

Silhouettes of buildings remained but nature had successfully reclaimed much of the land. The road had been torn in two, sprouting exotic flora in the divide between; the windows had been smashed and blown out, replaced with a glazing of redvine, curling and lacing the frames while what once must have been a hangar now would better serve as a field.

Scorched bullet holes rimmed the entire facility and transformed the remaining walls into a scorched polka-dot.

With a gulp, Jacen remained silent, no one had been here in a long time.

Suddenly, a scrape came from behind. Jacen swivelled and levelled his gun, pointing at the area he thought the sound had come from.

"My name is Cipher-17 of Imperial Intelligence, I have come to help with the extraction."

Silence.

"Is anyone there? I need to ask some questions."

Still no reply. Jacen walked over to the area.

Nothing was there. Just a small pile of rubble.

He allowed himself to take a deep breath, _Calm down Jacen, don't be a fool. No one's here, your job is find out what happened._

Recalling back to his training, he looked around for any signs of cameras. Back on Dromund Kaas, the empire liked to have one every few metres, spying on its populous and keeping them captive - it was no doubt the same here.

It took awhile but he finally spotted one, placed on the side of the hangar, raised about 8ft in the air. And with a small amount of careful climbing he managed to pull himself up next to it, making a ledge in a crinkle out of the corrugated steel of the wall.

The back of the camera was sealed shut from the build up of scum and would take a bit of work to open so Jacen tore it from the wall and jumped down. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a pen-knife and scrapped away what he could and pried open the camera's side, revealing what he was after. The small recording disk had remained in surprisingly good shape.

Luckily, he had remembered to bring his holocom from the ship and quickly plugged in the disk to one of its side ports. Jacen quickly accessed the files stored and scrolled down to the latest entry. A faint blue light crackled into existence as the 3D image began to appear:

The base was new again, clean and whole, in the pitch of night with the faint road lights. All was calm until a sudden explosion came from the front entrance. Sirens began wailing as men began charging back and forth, armed. Jacen watched as they set up a parameter at the gates to the compound. Laser fire could be seen, flying in every direction. The footage was grainy but he could just make out a few figures charging towards the men and what he saw frightened him. They were not human, they couldn't be: tall, slender beings sprinting at immeasurable speeds. The Imperials tried as they might to fight but to Jacen it was clear they couldn't win, these creatures had the numbers.

Unable to stomach anymore, he terminated the playback and slipped the holocom back into his pocket.

At least now he knew what the natives looked like.


End file.
